South Africa wants Africa to also help set rules for AI

“Africa should play a role in defining the rules governing the development of the AI,” said South African chief of diplomacy Ronald Lamola on Thursday in his speech at the UN General Assembly’s annual session.

The South African Foreign Minister stressed that the continent has “the world’s largest reserves of critical minerals”, resources that can contribute to “reducing the disparity between rich and poor nations and overcoming the indignities of poverty and underdevelopment”.

Lamola maintained that Africa, which houses almost one-fifth of the world's population, remains relegated to the background in the international arena and advocated greater African representation in the UN Security Council.

The diplomat called for permanent places for Africa, “with all the prerogatives” of permanent members (who are entitled to veto) and recalled that 70% of the resolutions adopted by the Security Council in the last decade were related to conflicts on the continent.

“If the future belongs to young people, then surely a continent that, in 2030, will house one in four young people in the world deserves a place of greater prominence at the table,” Lamola argued.

The minister also associated Africa’s development difficulties with debt: “Unsustainable debt betrays the promise of development and destroys the prospects for democracy”.

In the context of the conflicts, Lamola classified the situation in Sudan as “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world” and also mentioned the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran and Ukraine.

The diplomat reported that humanitarian workers are regularly caught in the midst of conflicts and demanded protection.

On the Gaza Strip, Lamola said that Israel’s “continuous violations” of international and humanitarian law “are genocide” and demanded that the international community act decisively.

The position of the South African minister follows the policy pursued by Pretoria, which brought an action before the International Court of Justice (IJC) against Israel for alleged violation in Gaza of the Genocide Convention.

In recent days, South Africa has argued that it will not change its stance, despite tensions with the United States, which criticized Pretoria's position on Israel and the TIJ process.

The attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on 7 October 2023 prompted an offensive launched by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the offensive displaced almost the entire population, damaged or destroyed most of the buildings and caused more than 73,000 deaths.